Greg Bowes CD OFTHEWEEK With their Nu Breed offshoot, the Global Underground camp add to their already substantial line in DJ mixes (from the likes of Paul Oakenfold and Sasha) a platform for less established but equally thrilling deckhands. Danny Howells, who’s here with Renaissance over the weekend (playing at Nexus in Johannesburg and at Rhodes House in Cape Town – see music listings for more information), begins both of the discs of Nu Breed 2 with brilliant 16B cuts that bode well, and because the Englishman seems to be mostly immune to the trance virus currently afflicting so much “house”, this promising start is fluently fulfilled, resulting in what could be this label’s best and most cutting-edge effort yet. The sublime selection of choice deep house and fluid techno is competently compiled and sensibly sequenced, with the first part including masterpieces from The Beloved, New Phunk Theory and Subtech. On disc two the DJ ups the beat count and only occasionally stumbles, steering the mix up a few notches, though these lapses seem to be genuine attemps to fan an already fiery floor. To wrap up a simply massive-sounding set that encompasses further excellent efforts from Lexicon Ave, Ashtrax and Bushwacka, Howells drops the nearly decade-old match-up between visionaries Meat Beat Manifesto and Orbital, which shimmers with an infinitely fabulous sheen. Go dance to Danny Howells, because this is some of the freshest and finest four-to-the-floor music I’ve heard in ages.